New facility to come up in Govandi for treatment of Tata Memorial cancer patients

The Maharashtra government will be converting two building in Govandi into a medical facility for the long-term treatment of cancer patients that are undergoing treatment at the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH).

The announcement was made by Health Minister Deepak Sawant in the Assembly on Monday.

Sawant added that the buildings, with 300 apartments, will also house relatives of the patients who visit the TMH for treatment.

He was replying to a supplementary raised by Ajay Chaudhary (Shiv Sena) who represents Parel assembly constituency in the city where TMH is located.

The minister said the government had forwarded a proposal for the (Govandi) sanatorium, which will also house relatives of cancer patients, to Urban Development (UD) department.

“We have also discussed this with the Tata Memorial Hospital. A bus service from Mahul to the TMH will be started. The sanatorium will also have boarding and lodging facilities,” said the minister.

Raising the accommodation issues faced by patients and their relatives who visit the TMH from various parts of the country, the MLA said, “They have to sleep on the footpath outside the hospital”.

Meanwhile, citing the Mumbai Cancer Registry, the minister said the breast cancer incidence among girls and women in the age group of 22 to 39 is 0.5 to 11 per one lakh.

He said a population-based screening of men and women above 30 years has been done for oral, uterine and breast cancers in Satara, Sindhudurg, Bhandara and Wardha districts of the state.

“The screening will be extended to 12 more districts in 2018-19 and later across the state in a phased manner,” he said.

Responding to a calling attention raised by Shiv Sena MLA Ulhas Patil who demanded a cancer hospital in view of the “rising number of patients” in the area, the minister said the government would set up pre-cancer detection centres with chemotherapy facility at all public hospitals in the state.

With agency inputs